My Day. 6/16/13

Hello, thoughts from people!

This week I don't think you're going to see much from us, as Nate, Elizabeth and I will be chillin' like villains in Kansas, for the One Year Adventure Novel Summer Workshop.

If you're wondering, this is the first time I have actually met them IRL, so needless to say, I am extremely excited about this, as well as being nervous. 

I'm writing this while sitting in the car, with about 8 hours of the trip remaining.    

The last time I took a car trip this long was in 2009 when I was 11, so I am not accustomed to this at all. And my legs are longer. And they hurt. 

So, to relieve my boredom and to take my mind off of the fact that my neck hurts because I thought I could carry 5 packed bags at one time, I will be logging this journey every so often here, for you to read, since I've nothing better to do. 

Yay. 

9:00am-ish  

We're leaving Nashville! 

10:00am 

Okay, so we're now in Kentucky, and will be entering Missouri soon.     Back in Tennessee, our styrofoam plates flew out of the truck, as they weren't tied down. 

That was funny and scary and depressing, as we had been on the road for less than eight minutes.

10:17am.  We've been on the road for about an hour, and not much has happened.  A kayak almost flew off of the car in front of us, and now it's behind us, so should it fly off, I will miss that potentially life changing experience.  

There's also been a lot of Wheat, Silage (The corn used to feed cattle and such.), and horses.    

It's also flattened out a lot.   In Nashville, where I live (Well, just outside of it.) we have a lot of hills, and I've really only ever been to Alabama, Mississippi, Southern KY, and Indiana, so I'm not used to a different landscape.  

You can probably tell that I don't travel a lot.   I'd like to in the future though, if I could get over the incessant need to bring absolutely everything that I have owned ever.   

10:32am 

Parents are fighting about something related to Indiana.  Not sure what though. 

I have a lot to look forward too though, so I'm not going to let it bother me.   Besides, this happens every trip, with the usual angry swerving of the truck, and the throwing of maps.    I just turn up my music and write or something so I don't have to acknowledge that it's happening.    It doesn't make me mad or anything, because it shouldn't.  I just don't like thinking about anything remotely depressing while in the car, because for some reason it magnifies it.  

11:06am 

I just saw the water tower for Paducah Kentucky after taking a short nap.      I've been filming a bit out the window here and there, for car footage if I make a video about this trip. 

11:41am

We're leaving Paducah, and I got some pictures of the world's most adorable car on the face of the planet. I'm serious. It is.    

We've only been in Illinois for about 5 minutes and it's already what you'd expect. It's really flat and uneventful.    I mean, if we happen to find a convention of corrupt politicians, I might change my mind, but as it is right now, I don't think I will. Besides, we'll be in Missouri soon anyway.   

12:09pm

I think we're still in Illinois, but I could be wrong. 

We have an incredibly hard to endure audiobook playing. My brother seems to enjoy it though, which keeps him happy enough to be a tolerable little being. 

12:53pm 

We're only halfway through the Illinois leg of this trip.    So far we've seen a prison and some corn, which I guess is better than nothing.     My camera fell on my face when I fell asleep, and that didn't feel all that great, mostly because of the fact that I almost broke my microphone.  Hopefully I didn't screw up the audio levels or anything, because I don't have enough money for another one, and I can't get one for another few weeks anyway, meaning that the audio at this workshop would then be rather…tinny. 

1:53pm

It's an hour later, and in that time we entered and are now leaving Mt. Vernon Illinois.  While there we stopped off at the world's most ghetto Hardees, with a kitchen that had a film of nastiness that was at least two inches thick.  

Thankfully my gluten intolerance, and my old pal Celiac disease came in handy, subsequently preventing  me from partaking of their sad excuse for a food like substance. 

My dad just said we'd be in Illinois for another hour.    This is going to be a long hour. Plus it's raining.  I really hope nothing bad happens, because I don't think I'd forgive myself.  I'm already feeling guilty about dragging my family halfway across the country for this trip anyway, and that certainly would not help matters at all. 

3:12pm

I went to St. Louis. 

A city with a crime rate higher than Brian Jones at his swimming pool.  

It was nothing more than a pass through, so I had just thought that there might be a rough district or two giving me reason to believe that yes, it really DOES have a high crime rate. 

When we got close to the edges of the city, with the fame inflated arch in sight, I saw nothing more than run down industrial parks and a boarded up victorian home here and there.   

Nashville, (TN, not IL) has those too, and I think every remotely large city has that. 

Here though, they just got closer together. The more we drove the more depressing it got.

We hit the bridge into downtown, and most of even the biggest "nicest" buildings were covered in vines, and the city seemed dead. Huge, but dead.   I had always thought that Nashville was little more than a few honky tonks and some other tourist-y attractions, until I took a closer look, when I found out that it was a town that was bouncing back from its time as a bit of a slum

, in order to become something good, and fresh. 

In hopes of seeing this, I put on glasses as rosy as they could possibly be, but it didn't help. 

There were rows of old houses, and old warehouses that looked like they were made at the turn of the century. Potentially beautiful homes and former businesses now home to squatters and people who could care less about the endless cycle in which they live. 

It hurt to see it as miles passed and nothing changed. The rows of houses kept on, now becoming sparser, not from their construction, but because 2 out of 3 units had been burned out or torn down.   

Finally we passed over a small hill that gave way to little post WWII salt box houses as far as the eye could see. Some strips of them looking well kept, but most looking as if they hadn't been painted or even thought about as anything more than a roof in 40 years. 

Maybe my judgement is too harsh. Maybe it's because I don't know the people that caused this. Maybe if I did, I would have a different opinion, but I didn't get to stop, so all I have is the ability to take things at face value, and to use my better judgement. 

4:06pm

We're in traffic, of people from the surrounding factories getting off of work, and I can say that the surrounding towns outside of St. Louis aren't all that scenic.  

I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't a scenic trip. 

According to the GPS, we'll be pulling into Overland Park Kansas in about 3 hours. 

5:31pm

Still on the road.  .___. 

6:16pm

Stopped off at a rest stop, and we had a nice leg stretching, bladder releasing session.  Sadly it was one of those rest stops filled with people that 

Also, if you run over a road worker in Missouri, it's only $10.000.00 but if you run over one in Illinois, it' $15.000.00

So if you need to run over a road worker in those two states, run over him/her in Missouri.  

We also keep passing this one Jeep that we think was at Bonnaroo, so if we stop again and see them, or see where they are from, I'll let you know.   

We saw them at the rest stop, but never got a chance to ask them anything. If I had remembered to, I would have, but I didn't, because that's how I roll. 

7:25pm

We passed the Jeep about an hour ago, and the tags on it said Florida, which kinda rules out Bonnaroo as a possibility for where they had been. 

Right now we have about 30 minutes to go before we get to our hotel. 

I can't wait to get out and walk around, and maybe explore the hotel a little bit, as well as have internet access. 

I guess that's when I'll post this, since I'm going to be busy all morning. 

So far everything has gone okay, and I am happy.      

I have to wonder if this is going to be the longest blog post I have ever made. Like, ever. 

7:49pm

We're in Independence Missouri, and if you've ever seen me play Oregon Trail, be it on Windows XP or on AppleSoft Basic, you'll know that driving through here is a very traumatizing experience for me. 

8:56pm

We're in Kansas!  We've made it here, and had a safe trip!   Currently off to explore the hotel!

FAREWELL!

-Ranger :3